Newcastle United leader reveals his true feelings on summer transfer business - 'it shows'
Newcastle United captain Dan Burn reflects on the club’s summer transfer business.
Newcastle United captain Dan Burn is “really happy” with the make-up of the squad following a summer of significant change at St James’ Park.
The Magpies sold Anthony Gordon, Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimaraes - who Burn succeeded as skipper - whilst also losing head coach Eddie Howe 23 days before the new Premier League season started.
Matthias Jaissle succeeded Howe and the former Al Ahli and RB Salzburg boss has made an unbeaten start to the campaign with home draws against Liverpool and AFC Bournemouth, and a 2-0 victory away at Tottenham Hotspur.
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United made eight summer signings, all of whom are aged 24 or under. Ewen Jaouen, Bazoumana Toure, Sean Steur, Aladji Bamba and Lukas Hornicek joined prior to Jaissle, before the German welcomed Amar Dedic, Nico Gonzalez and Matias Fernandez-Pardo to the club.
Newcastle spent £270million on new players, though raised £247.5million via the sales of Gordon, Tonali and Guimaraes, and the season-long exit of club-record signing Nick Woltemade to Juventus.
Dan Burn ‘really happy’ with Newcastle United squad after summer transfer business
Reflecting on the summer business, Burn believes there’s a good blend of youth and experience in the squad.
“We welcomed Matias Fernandez-Pardo, a really sought-after player this window,” said Burn. “For us to get that over the line, it shows the direction the club is going in. It takes lads time coming to England, learning the language, and the quicker they can get on board with that, the better.
“The club have taken a different approach from recent years and are building a younger, exciting squad. There's a lot of potential there, and lads who are big international players. With Nico Gonzalez coming in from Manchester City, he brings that experience too.
“There's a good mix of experienced lads here to help the younger lads. There are lads who have been here a number of years. Sven has been here a number of years, probably coming into his prime years and he's looked really good in the first few weeks, along with Malick [Thiaw]. Hally [Lewis Hall] has also been here a long time now.
“I’m really happy with how the team looks. It’s early days but I’m really impressed with what we’ve done so far. Now we need to make sure we keep doing it, and don’t sit back and relax.”